Show just the candidate words (no anagrams) (note: only the registered version of ANAGRAMS supports this option)

-d

Disallow duplicate words in an anagram

-e

Echo anagrams to stderr, too

-i

find only interesting anagrams (note: only the registered version of ANAGRAMS supports this option)

-r

Tell ANAGRAMS not to create a range table.

-s<n>

Set status level to <n> (0=off, 1=outermost word, 2=% done, 3=# out)

-m<min>

Minimum word length = <min>

-a<max>

Maximum word length = <max>

-w<min>

Find anagrams which contain at least <min> words

-x<max>

Find anagrams which contain at most <max> words

-fi

Flag interesting anagrams (note: only the registered version of ANAGRAMS supports this option)

-fw<min>

Flag anagrams which contain at least <min> words

-fw<max>

Flag anagrams which contain at most <max> words

-pn<nnn>

Format output into <nnn> columns

-pw<nnn>

Columns will be <nnn> characters wide

-pp<nnn>

Page is <nnn> characters wide

ANAGRAMS's options are case-insensitive; you may specify them in either upper- or lowercase.

Here are some examples:

ANAGRAMS KimMoser

finds all anagrams for KimMoser.

ANAGRAMS -m3 KimMoser

finds only those anagrams for KimMoser which contain words that are at least 3 letters long.

ANAGRAMS -m3 -a4 KimMoser

finds only those anagrams for KimMoser which contain words that are at least 3 letters and at most 4 letters long.

ANAGRAMS -w2 -x3 KimMoser

finds only those anagrams for KimMoser which contain at least 2 words and at most 3 words.

ANAGRAMS -w2 -x2 KimMoser

finds only those anagrams for KimMoser which contain exactly 2 words.

THE -B OPTION

If you ever have to stop ANAGRAMS in the middle of anagrammizing a phrase, you can use the -B option to restart ANAGRAMS where it left off. You must specify the candidate word that ANAGRAMS was up to when it was stopped. For example, if you stopped ANAGRAMS in the middle of finding anagrams for InternationalBusinessMachines, and the candidate word it was up to was SENSATIONALISTS, then you can restart it like this:

ANAGRAMS -bSENSATIONALISTS InternationalBusinessMachines

The candidate word may be specified in either upper- or lowercase. If the word which you specify is not a candidate word, ANAGRAMS will start with the first (longest) candidate word.

You'll probably want to restart ANAGRAMS with all the other command line options that you were using previously, but you don't have to.

THE -C OPTION

Only the registered version of ANAGRAMS supports the -C option. The -C option causes ANAGRAMS to show just the candidate words; anagrams are not generated. Candidate words are shown longest to shortest.

THE -D OPTION

Use the -D option to prevent ANAGRAMS from finding anagrams which contain duplicate words. For example, if you're anagrammizing the phrase BE NO BONE, the -D option will prevent the anagram NOON BE BE from being found because the word BE is duplicated. Likewise, BONE BONE won't be found, either.

Note that if the phrase you're anagrammizing has no duplicate letters, then ANAGRAMS will automatically invoke the -D option for you, since it knows that none of the anagrams will contain any duplicate words. Also, invoking the -D option speeds up ANAGRAMS's calculations a bit.

THE -E OPTION

Normally, ANAGRAMS sends all the anagrams it finds to the standard output device (usually the screen). You can redirect its output to a file, like this:

ANAGRAMS WHATEVER >OUT.TXT

This will create the file OUT.TXT, which will contain the anagrams for WHATEVER. When ANAGRAMS is working, though, you won't be able to see the anagrams it comes up with, because they're being redirected to a file.

The -E option tells ANAGRAMS to send the anagrams to stderr (always the screen) as well. This lets you see anagrams as they're generated, even if ANAGRAMS's output is redirected to a file.

While ANAGRAMS is running, you can press the 'E' key to turn the -E option on and off. (See below for more information on valid keystrokes while ANAGRAMS is running.)

THE -I OPTION

Only the registered version of ANAGRAMS supports the -I option. The -I option causes ANAGRAMS to display only "interesting" anagrams.

An "interesting" anagram is one which contains at least one "interesting" word. An "interesting" word is one which I marked as "interesting" when I created ANAGRAMS's dictionary. Most of the "interesting" words are related to politics, religion, or sex.

THE -R OPTION

The -R option tells ANAGRAMS not to create a range table. Normally ANAGRAMS creates a range table in memory to speed up its calculations, but when the phrase to be anagrammized is long it can take an inordinate amount of time to create the range table. In such cases, it's most efficient to use this option to tell ANAGRAMS not create a range table.

THE -S OPTION

Use the -S option to set the status level.

LEVEL

EFFECT

0

The status is shut off completely. (If the -S option is not specified, this is the default status level).

1

ANAGRAMS shows the outermost candidate word that it's up to.

2

ANAGRAMS shows everything that it does in level 1, as well as how many candidate words it has checked, how many remain to be checked, and what percentage it's done.

3

ANAGRAMS shows everything that it does in level 1 and 2, as well as how many anagrams it has found so far.

As it checks each candidate word, ANAGRAMS will display the current status. The more candidate words that were read in, the longer it will take for ANAGRAMS to display the status.

Note that while ANAGRAMS is running, you can press '?' to see the current status. Hitting '?' causes ANAGRAMS to show you everything that you would see if the status level was set to 3.

THE -M OPTION

Use the -M option to tell ANAGRAMS the minimum candidate word length that it should use. For example, if you want to see anagrams which contain only words that are at least 4 characters long, invoke ANAGRAMS as follows:

ANAGRAMS -m4 WHATEVER

Of course, the minimum word length you specify must be no longer than the phrase for which you want to find anagrams. For example:

ANAGRAMS -m8 TEST

is not allowed because TEST contains only 4 characters; the longest candidate word, therefore, won't be longer than 4 characters, so limiting it to 8 characters is meaningless. Also:

ANAGRAMS -m5 KimMoser

is not allowed because no combination of 5-letter words (or longer) can generate an anagram which contains 8 letters.

THE -A OPTION

The -A option is similar to the -M option, but is used to tell ANAGRAMS the maximum candidate word length that it should use. For example, if you want to see anagrams which contain words that are at most 4 characters long, invoke ANAGRAMS as follows:

ANAGRAMS -a4 WHATEVER

Of course, if the maximum candidate word length that you specify is longer than the phrase you're anagrammizing, ANAGRAMS will ignore the maximum word length that you requested.

When using both the -M and the -A options, the minimum candidate word length that you specify must be less than or equal to the maximum candidate word length that you specify. For example:

ANAGRAMS -m3 -a4 WHATEVER

is acceptable, but:

ANAGRAMS -m4 -a3 WHATEVER

is not.

THE -W OPTION

Use the -W option to tell ANAGRAMS the minimum number of words an anagram must contain for it to be displayed. If you don't use the -W option, all anagrams are displayed, regardless of how few words they contain.

THE -X OPTION

Use the -X option to tell ANAGRAMS the maximum number of words an anagram may contain for it to be displayed. If you don't use the -X option, all anagrams are displayed, regardless of how many words they contain.

If you use both the -W and the -X option, then the number that you specify with the -W option must be no larger than the number you specify with the -X option. For example,

ANAGRAMS -w2 -x3 KimMoser

means "display all anagrams which contain at least 2 and at most 3 words," which is acceptable. But,

anagrams -w3 -x2 KimMoser

means "display all anagrams which contain at least 3 and at most 2 words," which is not acceptable.

THE -FI OPTION

Only the registered version of ANAGRAMS supports the -FI option. This option causes ANAGRAMS to flag "interesting" anagrams with asterisks ('*').

At the end of each "interesting" anagram, an asterisk will be printed for every "interesting" word in the anagram. The more interesting words the anagram contains, the more asterisks will be printed.

THE -FW OPTION

Use the -FW option to specify the minimum number of candidate words an anagram must contain for it to be marked. If an anagram contains at least that many words, it will be marked with plus signs ("+").

See the description of the -FX option for more information on how anagrams are marked.

THE -FX OPTION

Use the -FX option to specify the maximum number of candidate words an anagram may contain for it to be marked. If an anagram contains no more than that number of words, it will be marked with plus signs ("+").

For each word in the anagram being marked, a plus sign will be printed at the end of the anagram. A three-word anagram, for example, will be marked with "+++" (three plus signs).

If neither the -FW nor the -FX option is used, no anagrams will be marked with plus signs.

THE -PN OPTION

Use the -PN option to specify how many columns the anagrams (or candidate words, if you used the -C option) should be printed into.

Based on the length of the phrase you're anagrammizing, ANAGRAMS will make its best guess as to how wide the columns should be so that the longest anagram (or candidate word, if you used the -C option) will fit.

THE -PW OPTION

Use the -PW option to specify how wide the columns will be.

THE -PP OPTION

Use the -PP option to specify the width of each "page." Based on the length of the phrase you're anagrammizing (or the longest candidate word), ANAGRAMS will calculate the number of columns and the width of the columns for you.

Of course, you can override ANAGRAMS by specify either the number of columns (with the -PN option) or the column width (with the -PW option).

The -PN, -PW, and -PP options work together like this:

If you specify ONLY the -PP option, ANAGRAMS will make its best guess as to what the -PN and -PW options should be.

If you specify the -PP option AND: either the -PN option OR the -PW option, ANAGRAMS will calculate the option that you left out, based on the values you gave it.

For example, if you specified a page width of 80 characters, and a column width of 12 characters, ANAGRAMS will set the number of columns to 6.

Likewise, if you specified a page width of 80 characters, and the number of columns at 5, ANAGRAMS will set the column width at 16 characters.

Note that when ANAGRAMS has to calculate the column width, it can only make an educated guess. This is because it hasn't yet generated any anagrams, so it doesn't know how wide the longest anagram will be.

While ANAGRAMS is finding anagrams, it accepts the following keystrokes:

KEY

EFFECT

Q

Quits ANAGRAMS, returning you to DOS

N

Skip to next leading candidate word

E

Toggle -E option (echo anagrams to screen)

P

Pause ANAGRAMS

S

Change the status level

?

Show status

If you hit any other key, ANAGRAMS will display the list of valid keys.

Hitting 'Q' will stop ANAGRAMS, returning you to DOS.

Hitting 'N' stops ANAGRAMS from looking for anagrams which begin with the candidate word that it's up to, and causes it to look for anagrams which start with the next candidate word. Think of this as the "fast forward" key. It will cause you to miss some potential anagrams, but it lets you jump quickly to the next candidate word.

Hitting 'E' will toggle the -E option: if the -E option is on, it will be turned off; if it is off, it will be turned on. If you've redirected ANAGRAMS's output to a file, you can use the -E option to take a peek at the anagrams that are being generated.

Hitting 'P' pauses ANAGRAMS and writes a message telling you to hit any key to continue.

Hitting 'S' causes ANAGRAMS to change the status to the next highest level (or to 0 if the status level is already set to 3).

Hitting '?' shows you which candidate words are being worked on, how many candidate words were read in, how many candidate words have been checked, what percentage is done, and how many anagrams have been found so far. This is exactly what you see when the -S option was used to set the status level to 3.

Note that ANAGRAMS checks for and processes keystrokes only AFTER it finds a candidate word that fits in the anagram that it's checking. This usually happens dozens of times a second, so your keystrokes are usually acted on almost immediately.

Sometimes, though, it will take ANAGRAMS a long time to find the next word that fits in the anagram. This usually happens when you're anagrammizing a particularly long phrase, or one which contains very few (or no) duplicate letters. When this happens, your keystrokes will be ignored until ANAGRAMS finds the next word that fits.

When ANAGRAMS doesn't respond to your keystrokes, you can either wait patiently for it to respond, or you can hit Ctrl-C (or Ctrl-Break) to stop it and return to DOS.